In this article, Jardar Alai spreads awareness on this issue.
The sad reality of today's society is that women do not always feel safe in all circumstances and many women will go through life with at least one situation of harassment in their life but, in Egypt, it's on a different level. A UN study in 2013 found that 99% of women in Egypt have experienced some form of harassment and because of the Egyptian society many women feel ashamed to open up about their experience. Recently many women in Egypt have opened up of their experience of sexual harassment on social media and this trend spread fast on Egyptian social media. 2 sexual harassment cases have made a national debate in the country and that is the case of Ahmed Zaki and an alleged gang rape in 2014 at the Fairmont hotel in Cairo. Ahmed Zaki was a privileged young man that came from wealth, and he studied in the American university in Cairo, one of the top universities in the country. On July 1st 2020, a post spread where a young women accused Zaki of sexual assault and the later at the same day, 50 women came out of their experience with Zaki. Within a few days the number raised till 100 and some of the victims were underage. Because of the high publicity of this case more women opened up of their stories and Zaki was sentenced to 3 years in prison. Zaki's case is pretty interesting because his story isn't the stereotypical harassment case. The stereotypical harassment situation in Egypt is normally a group of working-class men or young unemployed men who do not control their sexual desires and it's their fault that women get harassed. In 2014 at the Fairmont hotel 4 to 7 upper-class men drugged and raped a female after a "Tea Dance" event. According to some posts the men even signed their initials on her body. This event was filmed and used as blackmail to silent the victim. That did not stop people from seeking justice for the victim of the Fairmont crime. Women are at the forefront of seeking justice in the sexual harassment cases. The Egyptian government did something that could change the fight for women. A new law is in work. This law would strip away women right to own property, the right of custody of their children. Women have to get permission from their father to make legal decisions for their children. It would also give male relatives the power to prevent women from travelling and curtails a woman's right to register the birth of her child or obtain a passport for them. Women also would have less power over decisions regarding their children's education or medical care. After the news spread of this new law being passed, many women felt petrified and many felt like they were going to lose their voices. The Egyptian center of women rights says that this law would reduce women to sex machines and this law is worse than Saudi Arabian laws on women. The Egyptian center of women rights is calling out the government and they are stopping before this bill becomes law. Sources: MEMO(4.04.2021) Outrage as Egypt mulls imposing male guardianship law https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210304-outrage-as-egypt-mulls-imposing-male-guardianship-law/ 19.04.2021 MEMO(30.07.2020) Egypt gang rape attack in hotel reignites #MeToo campaign https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200730-egypt-gang-rape-attack-in-hotel-reignites-metoo-campaign/ 19.04.2021 Memo(29.12.2020) Egypt student jailed for 3 years for online sexual harassment https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20201229-egypt-student-jailed-for-3-years-for-online-sexual-harassment/ 19.04.2021